Life or Honor?

[Child of the 7th Age]

But isn't the key to all this how we define the concept of "honor".

Here are all the definitions of honor I could find in dictionary.com:

1. High respect, as that shown for special merit; esteem: the honor shown to a Nobel laureate.

Good name; reputation.
A source or cause of credit: was an honor to the profession.

2. Glory or recognition; distinction.
a.A mark, token, or gesture of respect or distinction: the place of honor at the table.
b. A military decoration.

c. A title conferred for achievement.

3. High rank.

4.The dignity accorded to position: awed by the honor of his office.

5. Great privilege: I have the honor to present the governor.

6. Honor Used with His, Her, or Your as a title and form of address for certain officials, such as judges and mayors: Her Honor the Mayor.

7. Principled uprightness of character; personal integrity.

a. A code of integrity, dignity, and pride, chiefly among men, that was maintained in some societies, as in feudal Europe, by force of arms.

b. A woman's chastity or reputation for chastity.

c. Social courtesies offered to guests: did the honors at tea.
honors
Special recognition for unusual academic achievement: graduated with honors.

8. A program of individual advanced study for exceptional students: planned to take honors in history.

9.Sports. The right of being first at the tee in golf.

10. Games.
Any of the four or five highest cards, especially the ace, king, queen, jack, and ten of the trump suit, in card games such as bridge or whist.
The points allotted to these cards. Often used in the plural.

Ok, personally, I wouldn't give a fig about most of these "honors". According to these definitions, honor mainly has to do how you are perceived by others, or how you are given "rewards" because you are perceived well. The only exception seems to be #7, which talks about uprghtness of character and personal integrity. That does have enormous meaning. Life without that kind of honor is no life at all. Yet, even here there is mention of a special code of male conduct, which certainly does not apply to me.

There is one episode concerning honor that no one has mentioned from the LotR. When Frodo comes home, one of the things that the author brings out is that he, unlike Merry, Pippin, and Sam, is accorded absolutely no honor by others in the Shire. The ironic thing is that he will shortly lose his life--if we equate sailing to the West with a permanent withdrawal from the activities of life. So is honor necessary for life to continue? Is Frodo's loss of honor an inevitable harbinger for his unavoidable sailing to the West? Or has Frodo surmounted "honor", and gotten to a point in his own life where the accolades of others truly aren't needed? Hence his need to leave the mundane life of the Shire and go where others of his kind have not previously gone.....

[littlemanpoet]

Thanks for a most excellent post, Child. I think that the sub-text under point #1 is also part of our discussion here.

Do we not find that the specificities of points a. & b. under #7 are removed from LotR, whereas the generality (or dare I say unity?) of #7 is evoked? What I'm suggesting is that Tolkien avoids getting bogged down in a. & b. while holding fast to #7 main point.

As for Frodo, my sense is that he neither wanted nor needed honor of any kind, and was happy (if we may call it that) to stay at Bag End in peace and quiet, and would have done so if not for his grievous wounds. Sam may have been pained by the lack of honor, but we can't really infer that Frodo was pained (by that).